Search the Site

Search Results for: captain steve

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 338

How to Catch World Cup Fever

For soccer fans, it’s easy. For the rest of us? Not so much, especially since the U.S. team didn’t qualify. So here’s what to watch for even if you have…

Finally, I Was Right About Something

…is no doubt this announcement is a complete waste of time, but not long after the post went up, Captain Sullenberger pulled off a water landing. Thanks for nothing, Sully!)…




Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 550

Why Do People Still Hunt Whales?

For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 571

Greeting Cards, Pizza Boxes, and Personal Injury Lawyers

In a special episode of The Economics of Everyday Things, host Zachary Crockett explains what millennials do to show they care, how corrugated cardboard keeps your food warm, and why…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 392

The Prime Minister Who Cried Brexit

In 2016, David Cameron held a referendum on whether the U.K. should stay in the European Union. A longtime Euroskeptic, he nevertheless led the Remain campaign. So what did Cameron…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 493

Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million?

Adam Smith famously argued that specialization is the key to prosperity. In the N.F.L., the long snapper is proof of that argument. Just in time for the Super Bowl, here’s…


Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 450

How to Be Better at Death

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician who would like to put herself out of business. Our corporate funeral industry, she argues, has made us forget how to offer our loved ones…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 239

The No-Tipping Point

The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 426

Should America (and FIFA) Pay Reparations?

The racial wealth gap in the U.S. is massive. We explore the causes, consequences and potential solutions. Also: another story of discrimination and economic disparity, this one perpetrated by an…


Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 133

Can You Really Work on an Airplane?

Are those travelers on their laptops just showing off? Why does V8 taste better at 35,000 feet? And why won’t Angela chat with her seatmate?…

Bring Your Questions for the MythBusters

…careers, from pet shop owner to charter boat captain to wilderness survival expert. He has also created the mechanical spiders for Arachnophobia and competed in the Comedy Central series Battlebots….



Episode image
Follow this show
EXTRA

A Modern Whaler Speaks Up

Bjørn Andersen killed 111 minke whales this season. He tells us how he does it, why he does it, and what he thinks would happen if whale-hunting ever stopped. (This…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 603

Did the N.F.L. Solve Diversity Hiring? (Part 1)

The biggest sports league in history had a problem: While most of its players were Black, almost none of its head coaches were. So the N.F.L. launched a hiring policy…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 95

Airplane Food

Everyone loves to complain about it — but preparing a meal that tastes good at 35,000 feet is harder than you might think. Zachary Crockett will have the fish….


Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 493

Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million? (Update)

Adam Smith famously argued that specialization is the key to prosperity. In the N.F.L., the long snapper is proof of that argument. Here’s everything there is to know about a…

High-Seas Piracy and the Great Recession

…few hours had retaken the ship from the pirates. The ship’s captain, however, is still being held hostage in a lifeboat, in a face-off with an American-guided missile destroyer. It’s…



Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 127

How Can You Be a Better Communicator?

How do you express yourself when you’re not sure what you want to say? What’s the number one way to get people to listen to you? And why are letters…

Episode image
Follow this show
EXTRA

Mark Teixeira Full Interview

A conversation with former Major League Baseball player and current E.S.P.N. analyst Mark Teixeira, recorded for the Freakonomics Radio series “The Hidden Side of Sports.”…

Does Obesity Kill?

…accident “an act of God”; others blame a company that modified the boat; there has also been talk that the captain was drinking. Now it seems only logical that someone…




Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 88

Freakonomics Goes to College, Part 2 (Replay)

College tends to make people happier, healthier, and wealthier. But how?

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 186

Do You Need a Routine?

Would you be more adventurous if you had more structure? Do you multitask while brushing your teeth? And what would Mike’s perfect brother Peter do?…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 112

Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars (Update)

Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he’s a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 224

How To Win A Nobel Prize (Replay)

The gist: the Nobel selection process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off, at least a little bit.

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 129

Should Tipping Be Banned?

It’s awkward, random, confusing — and probably discriminatory too.

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 18

Robert Sapolsky: “I Don’t Think We Have Any Free Will Whatsoever.”

…was observing.) Steve asks Robert why we value human life over animals, why he’s lost faith in the criminal justice system, and how to look casual when you’re about to…